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Sunday, June 24, 2012

I'm not one to hide veggies in dishes as a way to trick my kids into eating them, but if I can cram as many veggies as possible into a dish, then more power to me! I've seen several variations of pasta with avocado sauce, but for whatever reason, it never really appealed to me. As much as I love avocado, the idea of it mixed with hot pasta just wasn't appetizing - but as it turns out, I'm wrong sometimes, and it was pretty awesome!

You start by sautéing some onion and garlic in some olive oil, add the spinach and let it wilt, then add chopped avocado and Greek yogurt. Give it a whir through the blender, and you have a beautifully hued, wonderfully creamy, and healthy pasta sauce.

Apparently I am incapable of making dinner these days without adding roasted cherry tomatoes, so I topped the dish with some of nature's candy, and of course it was a great addition.

We all loved these noodles, and Caroline thought it was pretty fun to eat green spaghetti. She even asked if we can have yellow or purple spaghetti next time. I'll work on it :)

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions, and save about 1/2 cup of the cooking water for the sauce.

As the noodles cook, sauté the onion in a large skillet until softened, 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the spinach, a few handfuls at a time, cover the pan, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until all the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the yogurt, avocado, and 2-3 tablespoons of the reserving pasta water. Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth, adding more pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce. Alternatively, transfer to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.

Stir in the basil and Pecorino, and add the noodles to the sauce, tossing well to coat.

Divide the pasta among plates, top each serving with a handful of roasted tomatoes, and a sprinkling of Pecorino.

When I was a child, the only time I ever cried at the dinner table was when my parents made "green spaghetti." (Pesto, maybe?) I bawled for hours at the thought of taking even one bite. Now I can't get enough pesto. This "green spaghetti" looks great, too!

Funny story! Once, when I was pretty young, my mom and I were grocery stopping and she was buying spinach fettuccine. As we were checking out she put the fettuccine on the belt and I looked up at her with a really confused look and said, "Why are you buying dirty rubber bands." To this day we joke about eating "dirty rubber bands" for dinner! :)

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